In the 13-year period of 2005 through 2017, canines killed 433 Americans. Pit bulls contributed to 66% (284) of these deaths. Combined, pit bulls and rottweilers contributed to 76% of the total recorded deaths. | More »

Dog Came to Iowa Via a "Rescue Transport" from Louisiana

Images of Lucas before and after the dog attack from his fundraising page.

Family Files LawsuitUPDATE 03/31/17: The parents of a toddler attacked in the face by a newly adopted dog are suing. On Tuesday, Tyler and Holly Harrison, the parents of 15-month old Lucas Harrison, who suffered severe facial injuries in the March 15 attack, filed the petition through attorney John Frey. The petition alleges one count against the dog's owners for strict liability and two counts against the Clinton Humane Society for product liability, negligence and breach of express warranty.

Three weeks before the attack, a pit bull-mix named Emmet, was on death row at the New Iberia Parish Animal Shelter in Louisiana. On February 22, after social media rallied to "save Emmet," by raising over $300, the dog was "approved for transport." Emmet was trucked across state lines by NOLA Freedom Transport and delivered to the Clinton Humane Society five days later. On March 15, Ashley Greene adopted the dog and in under two hours, Emmet viciously attacked Lucas.

The petition alleges the Clinton Humane Society sold or distributed the dog to the Greenes and expressly warranted the dog as child friendly.

The Clinton Herald article spells out key aspects of the lawsuit, which primarily center upon the failure of the Clinton Humane Society to provide any reasonable instructions or warnings, including proper precautions to be taken when transitioning a shelter dog to a family home environment and when bringing their dog into the home of a friend, where another pet, an infant or young children are present. The Clinton Humane Society also told the new owners the dog was child friendly.

The petition states the Clinton Humane Society failed to provide warning to the new owners, Kris and Ashley Greene, the dog in question had recently been on death row in Louisiana. The humane group also failed to provide warning to the Greenes the dog could be a pit bull-mix, even though it was apparently advertised by the humane group as a boxer-mix. The petition states that the omission of these and other instructions and warnings renders the dog not reasonably safe.

03/18/17: Horrific Facial Attack Clinton, IA - On Friday we learned about a devastating dog attack. 15-month old Lucas Harrison was attacked in the face by a newly adopted dog. He was airlifted to the University of Iowa Children's Hospital where he is being treated. "A large part of his gum/bone including permanent teeth were ripped out, most of his nose cartilage was destroyed, and he will have lifelong damage," his fundraising page states. In two days, donations have already exceeded $115,000.

"While playing with a friend's newly adopted dog," Lucas was "suddenly attacked, with the dog biting off a large portion" of his face. - GoFundMe page

Through the online victims' advocacy network, we were able to reach a reliable source and verify the attacking dog and the shelter that adopted it out. On March 15, the day of the attack, the Clinton Humane Society adopted out a pit bull-mix named Emmet. Less than two hours later, the dog violently attacked Lucas in the face. Through public Facebook pages, we learned late Friday that Emmet was formerly a death row dog, shipped in from Louisiana at the end of February.

Transporting Death Row Dogs Across State Lines

Across the country there are "rescue transports," which are primarily driven by volunteers. The purpose is to save dogs on death row by transporting them (known as "freedom rides")1 to other rescues and shelters across the country, in hopes the dogs can find an adopter in that location. Dogs wind up on death row for two central reasons: They are dangerous dogs or the shelter's limited space forces euthanasia. The latter often refers to shelters in the Southern United States.

In mid-October 2016, Emmet, a male unneutered black and white pit bull-mix came into the New Iberia Parish Animal Shelter (IPAC) in Louisiana. The dog lingered in the shelter unwanted for 4.5 months. Though the shelter's Facebook support page states it is not a "government page," shelter staff are also Admins. Friday, while reviewing Emmet's October adoption listing, one of the Page's Admins deleted Emmet's listing. However, we had already retained a full copy of the listing.

Animals of IPAC advertised Emmet as a "great dog with a great temperament." On Saturday, IPAC also deleted the video of Emmet, but we retained a copy of that Friday too. On January 30, 2017, Animals of IPAC announced on the adoption listing that Emmet "will be euthanized tomorrow morning, no exceptions. The shelter is FULL." Then the rallying starts to "save Emmet." By February 14, $300 in pledges had been raised to "save Emmet." On February 22, Animals of IPAC states on the post, "Emmet got approved for transport. Please call in your $50 pledge" now.

After reaching the fundraising goal on February 26, Anderson announces on her personal page, "We leave TOMORROW." NOLA Freedom Transport has no website and is not a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Shortly thereafter, the Clinton Humane Society (CHS) receives the dogs. "Thank you to our great friends at New Orleans Freedom Transport for driving across the states, through the rain, hail, and tornado warning to get these dogs to us safe and sound," states their post.2

Clinton Humane Society (Clinton, Iowa)

The Clinton Humane Society takes in 22 dogs transported from Louisiana, one of them being Emmet. The CHS adoption listing shows a different age for Emmet than the IPAC Animal Shelter, mislabels the dog a "Boxer/Mix" and shows an intake date of 2/27/17. A local Clinton family adopts the dog on March 15 and in under two hours, Emmet tears off the face of a 15-month old boy. This is how the transport system works. Our only surprise is that CHS did not rename the dog.

The Clinton Humane Society website states multiple times that they administer a "nationally recognized temperament test" before dogs are considered for adoption. CHS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has no legal jurisdiction over animal cruelty investigations or ordinance enforcement, according to their website. CHS states that it is an "open admittance" shelter, but has a strict waiting list for local owner surrenders and accepts animals from "out-of-state" at their choosing.

The "nationally recognized temperament test" is called the Behavior Assessment and Reactivity Checklist (BARC Checklist). You can see a copy of the guidelines here. There is no mention of testing for children or cats in the checklist. No temperament assessment test -- "state-of-the art" or "nationally recognized" or otherwise -- measures unpredictable aggression. So both descriptions of these assessment tests are misleading and inaccurate to the public and potential adopters.

"There is no pass or fail for BARC. It is designed to be used as an assessment tool to best determine suitable homes," states its creators.

Call-To-Action for the Public

Last September, after examining 34 behavior records of dogs at a county shelter in California, many rife with aggression issues, we issued a Call-To-Action. At that time, animal behaviorist and author Alexandra Semyonova also provided an analysis and a special report to help the public understand the current state of shelter assessment tests: Behavior Testing Shelter Dogs -- A Summary of Where We Are Now. We again encourage readers to closely review her summary.

In some cases, shelters have an internal policy, "If They Don't Ask, Don't Tell" regarding sharing information about the dog's history with potential adopters. As an adopter you have the right to ask for all uncensored behavioral and medical files prior to adopting a dog. If for some reason the shelter hesitates at your request, or worse, refuses it, exit the facility right away. In the case of Lucas, we have no information about what transpired between CHS and Emmet's adopter.

When Adopting From a Shelter

Do your research

Go in with questions

Bring a trainer with you to the shelter to evaluate for signs of aggression

Request all behavior records for the dog

Request all medical records for the dog

Request all "outcomes" for the dog (if the dog was returned to shelter)

Editorial note added March 22: On March 22, we revised several links to reflect screenshots and PDFs captured while creating this post because the authors that we linked to later removed these materials. Specifically, Animals of IPAC removed the video of Emmet about a day after we discovered it on March 17 and Karen Anderson removed the "zoomed in" photo of Emmet after we published late March 18. We also revised the time the dog was in the IPAC shelter to 4.5 months, instead of 5.5, and added a link to the public Facebook group following Lucas' recovery.

1"Freedom rides" is a term from the civil rights movement in the United States that has been stolen and co-opted by dog rescuers to refer to dogs, primarily pit bulls, escaping death row and elevating "dogs" to a "human" status.2At some point after March 22, the Clinton Humane Society deleted or hid this post. We updated the broken link to a screenshot of the post on March 25. At this stage, all three involved parties have removed posts about this dog.

You bring up an excellent point! We have already contacted the Clinton newspaper (they have been following the fundraising page). As for NOLA, they probably want to keep this quiet. The New Iberia Animal Shelter continues to delete things too!

This picture left me shaking. How do the surgeons even begin their work on this child? This child's picture needs to be shown to the public over and over. Most people believe that pits can bite, but they don't really understand how much damage they can do. I hope that dog was put down and the shelter sued to the limits of its policy.

This breaks my heart. My daughter was bitten when she was a freshman in hs by a pitt. It was a family dog. Not ours, her boyfriends. She had been around the dog for weeks. The dog bit her face. Tore her eyelid from her eye, damaged the tear duct, damaged her eye, no longer focuses, and puncture wounds around her face. She had nightmares for years. It effects them forever. Praying for this little mans healing, physically and mentally. !

Louisiana is a HOTBED of dog fighting. There are so many dog fighters, dog fighting breeders, and they breed them aggressive.

Generations of dog fighting clans, generations of dogs specifically and selectively breed to attack and kill.

Big money in La dog fighting, thanks to no regulation, and these "rescue transport" businesses are just another arm of dog fighting. They take the cast off fighters and the surplus, and remarket them as "pets" when they aren't. It's all lies.

They help prop up the dog fighting businesses by lobbying for their interests too.

There's NOTHING about rescue with these businesses. They are preying on these dogs themselves for profit, and making the situation worse for even the pit bulls.

If any of them are shipping these fighting breeds into your area, you have trouble and people need to get very vocal about keeping these shady operations out of their communities.

Another horrific attack. However . . . . some responsibility for this attack should be placed on the child's parents/caregivers. Why would anyone let a baby or child near a newly adopted dog of any breed? Many dogs are nervous around children in addition to being apprehensive about being in a new home surrounded by strangers. Having said that, I certainly hope the innocent child recovers with the least amount of lifelong disabilities.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around anyone letting a child this small 'play' with any new dog much less a pit bull. "A new dog in the house is dangerous for the first 60 days, and a person who is new to a household where a dog resides is in danger of attack for the first 60 days. In 2012, roughly one-third of all dog bite fatality victims were either visiting or living temporarily with the dog's owner when the attack occurred, and 75% of deaths under these circumstances were children ages 8-years and younger." https://dogbitelaw.com/parents/a-dog-attack-danger-scale-to-keep-you-and-your-kids-safe

Pit bulls are now 6 percent of the United States dog population. Attacks on people, pets, and livestock continue to rise. No need for this breed that does the deed. Rid the country of this terrible breed.

@Cathy Callahan, I disagree with placing any blame on the parents. Yes, I agree that letting a child near a dangerous dog, especially one newly adopted is a bad idea. However, people make mistakes, and this is a mistake that a lot of people have made due to the incessant lies put out by pit bull advocates. The blame solely lies primarily with the shelters and "rescue transporters" involved with putting this killer dog in a home, and secondarily with pitbull advocacy groups that continually lie that pit bulls are no more dangerous than any other dog.

Poor little Lucas… never had a chance. Fantastic work, collecting the dirt, before the pit bull / vicious dog pushers could sweep the dirt under the rug! If not for your dedication, the world might never know the cause and backstory of such an horrific injury to a toddler. Everyone involved in preserving that vicious dog should be charged with criminal negligence.

Pitbulls and pitbull mixes are 'zero mistake' / 'zero tolerance' dogs. The rescue group shell game isn't doing any favors to anyone, and neither are 'no kill' shelters. Support BSL, and remember that there was a time when children and their real pets could play in the streets and backyards of America without having pitbulls and pitbull mixes rip them apart.

The B. A. R. C. test doesn't correctly test for aggression, but instead for barking and growling. Sure, you should avoid a dog that growls and snaps, but isn't that obvious? The test has nothing about real signs of aggression, such as ears forward and quiet intensity, and some of the things that are on the "good" side are really not good at all.

Pit bulls never attack without warning, but since most of us don't know how to read the signs, we have no business owning them. It's the animal shelter employee's job to cull the aggressive ones, but they're caught up in the "poor, misunderstood pit bull" story and have no idea what they are doing. The dog must have shown signs, this sort of thing doesn't just come out of the blue, but thanks to this worse than useless test and several bleeding hearts, a young child suffered a horrible attack.

There are some interesting comments coming in from rescue/shelter workers, but they continue to blame the parents who do not play any role in blame. We are not going to publish any more comments that blame the parents. The person who adopted the dog brought it to Lucas' home. The dog was rehomed by CHS and it attacked a child's face less than two hours later. That is the issue. Did the adopter walk out of CHS with a manual of specific instructions? A "How To" about the alleged "settling in" process? We don't know, but we imagine not. So unless you have information about this area, speculation is not appropriate. What we do know, based on the CHS website, is they administer the BARC Checklist, which offers no pass or fail and does not test for children or cats.

Colorado Dog Fanciers v. Denver (1991)"The trial court also found that pit bulls tend to be stronger than other dogs, often give no warning signals before attacking, and are less willing than other dogs to retreat from an attack, even when they are in considerable pain."

Vanater v. Village of South Point (1989)"Pit Bulls also possess the quality of gameness … which can be described as the propensity to catch and maul an attacked victim unrelentingly until death occurs … It is clear that the unquantifiable, unpredictable aggressiveness and gameness of Pit Bulls make them uniquely dangerous."

American Dog Owners Ass'n v. Dade County (1989)"to increase its effectiveness as a fighter, certain pit bull traits have been selected and maximized by controlled breeding, including 1) a set of powerful jaws with an exceptional ability to grip, lock and tear … 4) an extraordinary directness in their method of attack that does not include the common warning signs such as barking or growling displayed by other breeds"

The ethology and epidemiology of canine aggression"Dogs from fighting lineages have been under selective pressures that suppress or eliminate accurate communication of aggressive motivation or intent. It is to a fighting dog’s advantage for its attack to be unexpected. Many accounts of such attacks on people not that the incident occurred ‘without warning’"

I have a son who is almost 15 months old. The idea if something like that happening to his beautiful little face… there are no words. My prayers go out to the little guy and his family for a speedy recovery and no bumps in the long road they have ahead of them. I hope that someone will be held liable for what happened to him. There is plenty of blame to go around, all squarely resting on the shoulders of those who brought this mauler into circulation. These pit bull "rescues" are no different than illegal arms dealers, pumping dangerous weapons unrestricted into the neighborhoods and homes of innocent children. It makes me sick. And so do the psychotic pit advocates who blame babies for their own maulings and deaths. There is a special place in hell for those people.

The problems with shelters being reckless started with the pit bulls, whose owners/breeders are the source of such pit-normalizing shelter theories as the 3-week shutdown post-adoption and behavior testing as biased and useless, but the effects are there when you try to adopt any shelter dog. It's interesting – shelters have become very possessive of the process of assessing a dog, but also don't actually want to assess a dog. For example – with my last dog, adopted in 1999, I was basically handed the leash and told to go walk her outside to see if I liked her. That was actually perfect, allowing me to both see her wild energy and to find out that if you sat down on a bench, she'd circle back and be friendly. That walk doesn't happen today – now you're taken to a room or an outdoor dog pen with the dog, who is then released to run loose in the room or pen while a volunteer remains watching you and distracting you as much as humanly possible. You ask the person questions, which they answer vaguely (he's sweet, she seems fine with other dogs, he gives kisses) and the dog runs ceaselessly around the confined space sniffing and ignoring you. It's a setup designed to make it impossible to asses the dog – how often, after all, does your life as a dog owner involve standing in a small room or pen with it – and yet, every question about what the "professionals" have observed in the dog is answered with generalities and deflection. If you express discontent with the information provided, you are reminded, often condescendingly, that this is a rescue and there are no guarantees.

Colleen Lynn, you misunderstood what I wrote. I was basically saying the same thing as the quote you used: "to increase its effectiveness as a fighter, certain pit bull traits have been selected and maximized by controlled breeding, including…4) an extraordinary directness in their method of attack that does not include the common warning signs such as barking or growling displayed by other breeds"

This, along with their powerful physiology and their preferred method of attacking–the hang on and shake versus the regular bite and release of most other breed–make them unsafe as pets. Most people don't know how to read the important signs, especially children, pit bull apologists, and, oddly enough, shelter employees.

Powerful dogs that are that are so hard to read don't belong in people's homes as pets.

I started my dog training business not too far from there. I know the area well. This could have happened anywhere though, and the breed isn't to blame. It's the lack of knowledge of people working in the animal sheltering and re-homing business. There is absolutely no excuse, in my opinion, for shelters using amateur trainers rather than professionals who have the knowledge needed to properly assess the behavior of dogs, provide training to shelter workers, and make recommendations about training and placement. I speak from experience.

Terrible….and terribly irresponsible by all those who handled this dog prior to its adoption. Here is my question. The FB page for the poor boy who was bitten stated he had to undergo shots for rabies control. How was that dog adopted out of even the LA facility w/out having a rabies shot? Secondly, if a dog bites and is euthanized, its brain should be sent in for rabies testing. Why wasn't this done? Wouldn't this negate the need for this poor child to endure even more treatment? Shelters/Rescue groups who adopt out dogs that cause bodily harm/death need to be held accountable. Maybe then we will see this highly popular race to place a dog in its forever home stalled a bit. I am a dog lover and have adopted two dogs from shelters, but the fact of the matter is that no one can truly predict when and if a dog will bite or if aggressive behavior exists or will be brought about by different triggers, esp with dogs that come w/no background information. Releasing these dogs to anyone, esp families w/children is highly negligent. I'm sorry, but not all dogs are adoptable. People need to realize this. It's sad and most would love for all dogs to be saved, but some are very dangerous and unpredictable-as was the case w/this dog.

@Cindy, it's certainly fair to say that multiple powerful dog breeds are "capable" of this type of attack, but this type of gravely damaging bite is not the work of a yorki or a pug. Breed absolutely plays a role.

"A large part of his gum/bone including permanent teeth were ripped out, most of his nose cartilage was destroyed, and he will have lifelong damage. He will not have any upper front teeth, will need dental reconstruction to hopefully support false teeth when he is an adult, and have more facial surgeries in the future."

This NEEDS to go national. It is my understanding its happening at shelters all over the states. It is not acceptable. I have one item to add to the list when adopting from a shelter. DO YOUR HOMEWORK, be able to at least kind of recognize the breeds. I know it is not a breed specific thing, but when adopting an adult dog into a family with children, there are some breeds better left to experienced owners.

Speaking of – interesting – shelter/rescue decisions, I came across the case of Watauga Humane Society and Joe Dirt today. Adopted out in 2015, returned in 2016, no takers between April and June, made a special project as he deteriorates behaviorially in the kennels – apparently displaying scary aggressive behavior toward people walking down the kennel row. Between June and November, while under the special care and training of the shelter's Diamond Dogs program, Joe Dirt bites 3 people; the last is serious enough to warrant an ER visit for the victim, and results in a bite quarantine. WHS begins fundraising to ship him to a trainer in Ohio who specializes in vicious dogs, but first sends him home with a very special volunteer, Lisa. She ends up mauled and begging for cash on GoFundMe.

Amazing people at WHS. They watch an ownerless dog bite over and over and over, pretend it's 'reactivity' and spend what must have been hundreds and would soon have been thousands of dollars on its care and a rehab which is NOT working and which is not kind or humane to the animal. A dog who bites that much is not a happy dog; he's either so dominant he's endlessly frustrated by confinement, or he's so anxious he's endlessly stimulated by the kennels and by strangers. Either way, both the rational and the humane thing to do was euthanize him last year. Instead, they wait until he mauls someone? We need oversight in rescue.

I foster in Louisiana but not with this shelter. Some things to look into would be the dog's intake date. During that time that particular parish had a historic flood. I was one of many rescuers/foster people who helped in the rescue of 100s of animals ..most being yanked up by their heads into rescue boats. I ended up with several kittens (i mostly foster cats for the humane society but will on occasion take a foster dog in a pinch) and saw the good and hard work of many volunteers. The problem came in when out of state groups showed up for these "freedom" runs before the dogs were accessed or owners located. PETA was the worst of them to do so. These transports literally grabbed dogs and ran out of state. At the intake time you are stating this particular shelter was still flooded. That doesn't mean the shelter was not responsible. During this disaster a lot of animals were mixed, moved, evacuated, brought back and adopted out. Very few, if any, records from the flooded shelters are accurate. The La. shelter failed this dog and family. The transport people failed them and the IA rescue group failed them. Each and everyone of these groups should have done their own assessments. During this time there was huge drama and arrests for neglect of a private rescue's president. The group is called: SNARR, the national Special Needs Animal Rescue & Rehabilitation group. They specialize in hard cases but there were some seizures done by the parish as the animals were neglected and the president was arrested. Since this was in the same parish it might be helpful to look into that group to see if Emmet was with them. I would for sure do some more digging on the above stuff I brought up. With that said not all shelters or rescue groups in La. work like this. Our shelter supervisor is a vet and works her fingers to the bone for any animal but it the first to say a dog is not adoptable. Its a hard thing to say and the shelter takes so beef for those decisions but its stuff like this that helps them do so. When adopting a dog make sure you have all information on the dog. I personally would not adopt a dog that had not been fostered in a home with a knowledgeable foster care giver. This story is so heartbreaking for the family but also for those rescues and shelters who are top notch as it kills the level of trust people put on us. =( Lying or withholding information on temperament of 1 dogs kills 100s more so those "all dogs must live" people do more harm than good. Every rescue and shelter should have a level of integrity that is untouchable, like we have in the shelter I volunteer for but PLEASE don't blame all the shelters in our state as most are really good and do their best.

This is such a horrible story. My thoughts and prayers go out to Lucas and his family.

But my thoughts and prayers also go out to Emmet and ALL other animals caught up in our backward system. It only takes one "shelter" to make a horrendous screw-up like this; to overlook, to cover-up, to ignore paramount details about each and every animal that could/would have avoided such a catastrophic event like Lucas. I'm a volunteer at a local animal shelter and I know there is no 100% guarantee against such an attack, but to do nothing, no behavioral tests, not even making an observation is unforgivable. This is another nail in the coffin of animal shelters, adoption, but most of all Pit Bulls.

It's very likely that this dog did not display any signs during temperament testing that it would attack or was aggressive. Aggression / prey drive can be very specific; perhaps the dog is fine with adults and sees children as prey? The test is at fault for not testing the dog's reaction to children – especially a dog breed bred specifically for killing and maiming and not stopping an attack once it's started no matter what. I would love to see pitbulls go extinct but since that is unlikely to happen anytime soon, at least rescues that insist on adopting them out should be testing the dog's thoroughly and euthanizing any that don't pass.

@praline Yes, the historic 2016 Louisiana floods occurred in August. We only have information from the Animals of IPAC adoption listing. The dog's ad was posted in mid-October, and the dog had been at the shelter "since around October" stated a commenter on the thread. So yes, the intake could definitely be flood related, and could have been as earlier as September. The shelter's official adoption pages at Petango, here and here, don't list the actual intake date either.

You describe an aftermath (by the out-of-state rescues) that sounds a lot like post-Katrina. We are looking into SNARR — thank you for all of your tips!

We very much understand there are shelters with high integrity in Louisiana and across the country who are constantly taking a beating from no-kill factions and misguided rescuers. Notably, even adoption listings from the Pentago pages refer to the shelter as, "Now, she's stuck in a crowded, kill shelter praying for someone to save her." It is sad that they refer to their own open admission shelter that way, given the limited resources and heavy load of incoming animals.

When taking in a rescue or adopting an older dog you just don't know what that animal has been through. Small children so be the first priority around any animal. When people tell me there pet would never hurt their kids it infuriates me. You can not predict that as absolute fact so why would you even take the chance…..

Some key details have finally been released in the local media about this case.

"The incident happened around 4:50 p.m. March 15, according to a civil citation filed Wednesday … Gyrion confirmed the dog is currently at the Clinton Humane Society, where it will stay until at least March 28. On March 28, a local judge will determine whether the pit-mix adopted out by the humane society is to be declared dangerous."

Our Granddaughter and her husband have two pits. I must say they require a whole lot of attention and training. They did not go into this without a lot of education and commitment. If they notice one of them is showing any sign of slipping back from the training they have had, the dog is taken back to be retrained. These two dogs are as sweet and wonderful as any dog but owners must remember that they are pits.

American lawmakers are out of touch. Perhaps they will not make changes until these attacks start occurring in their neighborhoods? Even in light of these attacks there are individuals who go on camera or on record in the media and make these appear like they are isolated incidents and that the pitbull owners are the only ones culpable. Those dogs will turn without warning! So sad for Lucas and his parents.

I am so happy that they are suing. It's the ONLY thing that may stop these shelters – money.I would like to share this with my neighbors on Nextdoor, the email newsletter. However, after postting the link to dogsbite.org on there, not only did I get horrendous replies, one of the pit bull owners POISONED MY DOG. They, thankfully, were too stupid to do it right. Fortunately, the big dog got hold of it instead of the little ones. He was sick, they would have been dead. It seems that many pit bull owners have the breed because they are bullies themselves.Thanks for the update.

This breaks my heart! Someone needs to protect our babies! The shelters just want to adopt anything out sometimes, and the pitbull crusadors only care about one thing-pits not getting killed. So who's watching out for our little children? Has the world gone mad??? This is terrible. Even one life lost is too many, and something needs to be done. The problem is not that "all pitbulls are vicious" but rather when one "snaps" the amount of damage they can do is fatal. Poor child, and the many other lives lost to this breed.

"Our Granddaughter and her husband have two pits. I must say they require a whole lot of attention and training. They did not go into this without a lot of education and commitment. If they notice one of them is showing any sign of slipping back from the training they have had, the dog is taken back to be retrained"

I HATE to read things like this because it is what gets people and pets killed.

There is NO retraining that exists that copes with fighting dog aggression. There is no fixing it, changing it or making it better. There are "trainers" who lie and get people hurt or killed, though.

There is no education or commitment that stops attacks. Fighting breeds like pit bulls are intentionally bred to be violent. Done.

Second, the owners won't know there is a problem until someone is dead or maimed. Fighting breeds don't send you a warning note. They just maim or kill.

Fighting breeds are not pets and even the old time fighting dog families admit that.

Praline, your comment about Peta involved in that flood "rescue" situation in Louisiana is just silly.

It was Best Friends who was involved in the negative activities you describe, shipping out dogs that may even have been pets separated from owners. Not the first time.

It is always amusing to see pit bull supporters who still try to tar Peta while shielding the true culprits

Louisiana is one of the worst states for corrupt rescue dealers, dog fighters playing at "rescue,' abusive hoarders, and an assortment of other crimes including routinely selling violent dogs and hiding their histories. The bad outweighs the good in Louisiana rescue, and many pit bull rescues are involved, sadly, with dog fighters and have worked hard to protect their interests in the state.

Other states are getting infected with Louisiana's problems, and no transport from the state should be allowed in anywhere until it gets cleaned up.

UPDATE: June 9, 2017 — "A trial date is set for a civil suit filed as a result of a dog bite victim’s injuries. The civil suit filed by Holly and Tyler Harrison against Ashley and Kristopher Greene and the Clinton Humane Society is set for Oct. 1, 2018. A settlement conference is set for Sept. 6, 2018. The jury trial is expected to last approximately eight days. The suit is in regards to a dog biting the Harrison’s son, who is a toddler."